A known fastener is taught by, for example, by Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 9-217864. The known fastener 101 includes a holding member 110 that can hold a wiring harness W (i.e., an attached article), an engagement leg 114, and a dish-shaped stabilizer 112 that is integrated with the holding member 110. The engagement leg 114 includes a center pillar 118 that upwardly vertically extends from the stabilizer 112, and a pair of engagement members 116 that respectively have shoulder portions S. The engagement members 116 outwardly oppositely extend from the free or upper end of the center pillar 118 in a folded fashion toward the stabilizer 112. The lower ends of the engagement members 116 are integrally connected to the stabilizer 112. Further, the center pillar 118 is composed of two portions, i.e., an upper and lower portions 118a and 118b, which are removably connected each other via a locking or coupling portion L. The locking portion L is arranged and constructed to be disengaged or unlocked when the center pillar 118 is applied with a pulling force in the axial direction (i.e., when the pillar lower portion 118b is pulled downwardly relative to the pillar upper portion 118a).
The operation of the fastener 101 thus constructed is as follows. First, in order to attach the wiring harness W to a body panel 124 (i.e., an attaching object) of a vehicle, as shown in FIG. 32, the wiring harness W is disposed longitudinally along the holding member 110 of the fastener 101 and is bundled therewith using a band (not shown), so that the fastener 101 is combined with the wiring harness W. Thereafter, the engagement leg 114 is simply pressed into an engagement hole 126 formed in the body panel 124, so that the engagement leg 114 is inserted thereinto while the engagement members 116 are respectively inwardly flexed. When the engagement leg 114 is sufficiently inserted into the engagement hole 126, the shoulder portions S of the engagement members 116 elastically engage an inner edge of the engagement hole 126, so that the engagement leg 114 is retained therein. Simultaneously, the stabilizer 112 elastically contacts an outer surface 124b of the body panel 124, thereby producing an elastic restoring force therein. Due to the elastic restoring force of the stabilizer 112, the shoulder portions S of the engagement members 116 are urged to an inner surface 124a of the body panel 124, so that the engagement leg 114 is stably retained in the engagement hole 126 of the body panel 124. As a result, the fastener 101 is fixedly connected to the body panel 124. Thus, the wiring harness W can be reliably attached to the body panel 124.
Conversely, in order to detach the wiring harness W from the body panel 24, the wiring harness W is pulled downwardly. As a result, the holding member 110 (and the stabilizer 112) is pulled downwardly (in a direction of pulling out the engagement leg 114). Consequently, the lower portion 118b of the engagement leg 114 is pulled relative to the pillar upper portion 118a, so that the locking portion L is unlocked. When the wiring harness W is further pulled after the locking portion L is unlocked, the engagement members 116 are contracted (i.e., inwardly flexed), so that the shoulder portions S of the engagement members 116 are disengaged from the inner edge of the engagement hole 126. As a result, the engagement leg 114 is released or pulled out from the engagement hole 126, so that the fastener 101 can be removed from the body panel 124. Thus, the wiring harness W can be detached from the body panel 124 together with the fastener 101.
The fastener 101 thus constructed can be easily removed from the body panel 124 when the holding member 110 is pulled. Therefore, when it is necessary to detach the wiring harness W from the body panel 124 in order to, for example, recycle or reuse of the attached wiring harness W, the wiring harness W can be relatively easily detached from the body panel 124 by simply pulling the wiring harness W.
However, in this known fastener 101, the upper and lower portions 118a and 118b of the center pillar 118 must be connected or locked in the locking portion L before the fastener 101 is used. Therefore, time consuming and labor intensive work is still required to attach the wiring harness W to the body panel 124. In addition, manufacturing costs of the fastener 101 are increased due to the need to separate the center pillar 118 to two portions.